Display carton



' Dec. 13, 1960 BRACHMAN 2,964,169

DISPLAY CARTON Filed Jan. 14. 1959 mvz-rmon RAM? Bra-Amen ATTORNEY f 5 is.

DISPLAY CARTON Robert A. Brachman, 2730 W. Silver Spring Drive, Milwaukee, Wis.

Filed Jan. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 786,773 1 Claim. Cl. 2015-44 This invention relates to paper boxes and, more particularly, to cartons for packing a number of individual containers and subsequently displaying the same.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a display carton for packing and shipping in conventional manner, individual containers, such as salad dressing bottles, the box having certain flaps which, when opened, are used as an advertising display. One of the main features of the carton is that it shall, upon opening, serve to display not only a row of container fronts but, also, that certain flaps of the carton shall be disposed to display advertising matter thereon, above and behind, below and in front of, and on each side of the rows of individual containers. An auxiliary feature of the lower front advertising display of the carton is that it may selectively be cut off along predetermined lines of scoring and folding to provide apron-like displays of variable length.

These and other objects will be apparent from the following specfications and drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the closed carton;

Fig. 2 is a cross-section along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the carton opened for display with the complete advertising apron intact.

Referring now to the drawing, in which like reference numerals denote similar elements, the display carton is of rectangular box shape and is formed from a single blank of standard cardboard box material consisting of an inner ply i, on outer ply p, and a corrugated filler f between the plies, the blank being formed and folded to provide a front wall 4, rear wall 6, side walls 8 and 10, and a bottom 12. The bottom is conventionally formed by flaps 14 and 16 inwardly folded from side walls 8 and 10, respectively, and underlapping flaps 18 and 20 inwardly folded from the front and rear walls 4 and 6, respectively. Tape 21 holds the adjacent corner edges of rear wall 6 to side wall 8, and a sealing tape 22 holds closed the bottom underlapping flaps 18 and 20.

The invention is concerned with the features which adapt the carton for displaying its contents after use for shipping. Connected to side walls 8 and respectively and joined by folds 9 and 11 are flaps 24 and 26 which, in the normal use of the carton for shipping, are folded inwardly to constitute side underfiaps for the carton top. The remainder of the carton top is formed by a back underfiap 28 connected to rear wall 6 by a fold 29 and a front overflap 30 connected to front wall 4 by a fold 31, the top being held closed by tape 32.

Referring particularly to the front of the carton, cutting instructions 22 are provided along the corner folds 34 and 35 which normally join front wall 4 to side walls 8 and 10. The cutting instructions direct the user to slit the box downwardly along fold lines 34 and 35 to a line 36 across front wall 4 near the bottom. Along the inner side of line 36, the inner ply i, and at least part of the thickness of corrugated filler j" is formed with a cut 37 so that, once corner folds 34 and 35 are cut to States Patent 0 2,964,169 Patented Dec. 13, 1960 the extent of the instructions, the major portion of front wall 4 may be broken forwardly and folded downwardly along line 36. Since top overflap 30 is joined to front wall 4, a front apron-like sheet consisting of top overflap 30 and front wall 4 hangs downwardly in front of and below the then-exposed front row of contents. If only a limited amount of space below the shelf or table top on which the carton rests is available, top overflap 30 may be cut off along the line of fold 31 or, if no such space is available, the entire front apron may be cut off along line 36. Advertising matter for the displayed contents are provided on the inner sides of front wall 4 and top overflap 30, the matters preferably being related but separable parts of an advertising display so that, no matter if top overflap 30 be removed, the message conveyed by the display on the inner side of front wall 4 will be self-sufficient.

Long diagonal cuts 38 and 39 are formed through the inner ply (and part of corrugated filler f) along the inner sides of side walls 8 and 10, it being noteworthy that cuts 38 and 39 also through the rear portions of top side flap 24 and 26. Top underfiap 28 is hinged upwardly along fold 29 and, when side walls 8 and 10 are broken outwardly and downwardly, tabs 40 and 41 of double thickness remain upstanding to prop the top underfiap 28 in its upwardly extended position. Short diagonal cuts 42 and 43 are formed on the inner sides, near the corners, of top side flaps 24 and 26 so that when they and the adjacent portions of side walls 8 and 10 are swung outwardly and downwardly along the lines of cuts 38 and 39, tongues 44 and 45 may be broken and bent back along the lines of cuts 44 and 45 and planted beneath the lower rear corners of the carton for bolding the sides in place as shown in Fig. 3. Advertisements on the inner sides of top underfiap 28 and the outwardly disposed portions of side walls 8 and 10, and top side flaps 24 and 26 are exposed.

When used as a display carton as shown in Fig. 3, the front row of individual containers within the carton is displayed, as are also the upper-side portions of the containers towards the rear, the major portion of the inner sides of the carton walls become advertising displays which can be used either in their entireties or tailored to fit the available display space, and the individual containers within the carton are visible from the front, sides and top. Previously known modes of scoring or weakening of the carton material along lines 37, 38, 39, 42 and 43, or along corner folds 34 and 35 may be used, particularly if the carton be formed of single thickness or other material.

The invention is not limited to the details shown and described, but are intended to cover all substitutions, modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

In a display carton of rectangular box configuration comprising a bottom and front, rear and end walls joined to one another by corner folds, a top comprising a pair of top flaps respectively connected to said side walls by fold lines, a third flap pivotally connected to the rear wall by a fold line, and a fourth flap pivotally connected to the front wall by a fold line, said top flaps having front and rear free corner portions normally disposed adjacent the front and rear of the box when the latter is normally closed, said front wall having means defining a break line thereacross disposed between the top and bottom thereof, the corner folds joining the front and end walls being adapted for severance from the tops thereof down to the break line whereby, upon severance thereof, the front wall and fourth flap may be pivoted downwardly along said break line whereby to provide an apron-like dependage below the front of break lines extending from the corner folds joining the side and front walls upwardly and rearwardly from the respective ends of the first-named break line to upper rear'portions of said walls and thence across rear corner portions of the top flaps, whereby upper front portions of said side Walls and said top flaps may be doubled outwardly and downwardly along the last-named break" lines to display the contents of said carton from the sides, the rear free corner portions of said top flaps constituting upstanding props for holding the thirdflap in upwardly extended position, the frontfree corner per 15 2,298,135

tions of said top flaps having fold lines extending diagonally thereaeross' whereby the lastnamed corner portions may be folded under lower rear corner portions of the box for holding the outwardly and downwardly doubled flaps close against the sides of the box.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,649,211 Bitzer Nov. 15, 1927 1,932,429 Wellman Oct. 31, 1933 2,146,421 Davidson Feb. 7, 1939 2,168,240 Roberts-...... Aug. 1, 1939 2,259,041 Larkin Oct. 14, 1941 

